December 31, 2007	Monday	Zilhaj 20, 1428

COLOMBO, Dec 30: Sri Lanka’s army chief said the leader of the country’s Tamil Tiger rebels could be dead within six months and the military’s aim is to kill 10 rebels a day, a newspaper report said on Sunday.

Army Commander General Sarath Fonseka was quoted by the state-run weekend paper Sunday Observer as saying the security forces have occupied Tamil Tiger forward defence lines and surrounded the northern rebel held Wanni rebel base.

“The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) could not prevent losing their remaining 3,000 cadres and there is no assurance that the LTTE leader V. Prabhakaran would survive for the next six months as the Sri Lanka Air Force plans to attack all the LTTE bases,” Fonseka said.

“Our daily target is to kill at least 10 LTTE terrorists and for the last few months over 500 LTTE ... have been killed by the armed forces,” Fonseka said.

“We have weakened the LTTE by 50 per cent or more and we are confident we can go that extra mile in the coming year.”

Fonseka’s comments came a day after the defence secretary called for an official end to a ceasefire between government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels, saying the agreement had been violated so many times it had become a sham.

The Tigers have been outlawed as a terrorist group by a host of nations, including the United States, Britain and the European Union, after a series of attacks and assassinations.

Jehan Perera, an analyst with the non-partisan advocacy group, the National Peace Council, said he thought that while the LTTE may have only 3000 highly trained fighters, “they have many more in their military forces”.

But he also said the government had increased its fighting ability “because the government has bunker-busting bombs and the LTTE has not been able to successfully deter air force bombing raids”.

The Tigers were not immediately available for comment.

—Reuters